1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to hard disk drives and, in particular, to an improved system, method and apparatus for a perpendicular recording magnetic media with a partially-oxidized cap layer for hard disk drives.
2. Description of the Related Art
Perpendicular recording in magnetic media is now a standard technology for the hard disk drive industry. Perpendicular recording provides increased areal density compared to previous technologies, such as longitudinal or patterned media. When areal density is increased, however, the media structure becomes more complicated with many additional layers. In general, greater numbers of layers require newer and more expensive fabrication tools, which yield a higher fabrication cost for the media.
Since cost reduction is a very high priority in media manufacturing, the utilization of older fabrication tools with fewer layer fabrication chambers for complicated media structures is an effective way to reduce cost. Dual cap structures in the media require additional process chambers to realize this advantage. It is also known that multiple oxide layers in the media can achieve high signal-to-noise reduction (SNR) as well as good thermal stability in the same time. An improved system, method and apparatus for more effectively and efficiently fabricating the layers of magnetic media for hard disk drives would be desirable.